If the foreigners are just begin to learn Mandarin, the teachers should divide the teaching activity into two stages, one is grammar stage and the other is the words stage. As a matter of fact, they are closely combined. In the grammar stage, the focus is the functional words teaching because we regard them as grammar points. The followings are often seen when students learn Mandarin: the auxiliary words 了、着、过、的、地、得, the prepositions 把、被、给, the adverbials 都、也、就、才, etc.

When teachers explain these points, the point is to help them understand the basic sentence patterns of Chinese language. Then, the foreigners who learn Mandarin can communicate after combining them with some other basic words. When it comes to the second phase, the words play the most important role. Teachers’ aim is to help students who are learning Chinese Mandarin master more words and relative applications so that they can communicate with Chinese language.